Daily Archives: September 29, 2017

On Saturday 7th October, Stuart Cosgrove will launch his brilliant new book Memphis 68 at the Admiral bar in Glasgow.

We’re chairing the earlier part of the evening when Stuart will read from and answer questions about Memphis 68.

From 10pm, djs Lenny Harkins and Andrew Divine will crank up their irresistible Northern Soul club night begins at 10pm with .

Stuart has put together a storming playlist for us, and once again the lovely people at Polygon have given us 2 copies of Memphis 68 for a competition — check out our Facebook page for details on how to enter.

Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul

In the 1950s and 1960s, Memphis, Tennessee, was the launch pad of musical pioneers such as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Al Green and Isaac Hayes, and by 1968 was a city synonymous with soul music. It was a deeply segregated city, ill at ease with the modern world and yet to adjust to the era of civil rights and racial integration. Stax Records offered an escape from the turmoil of the real world for many soul and blues musicians, with much of the music created there becoming the soundtrack to the civil rights movements.

The 2017 summer season of concerts at Kelvingrove Bandstand is almost upon us. Glasgow’s beautiful, bijou outdoor arena will host the likes of Brian Wilson, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Kool & the Gang, Sir Tom Jones, Texas, Pixies, Hipsway and Arab Strap over the next couple of months, but opening proceedings are The Divine Comedy, best loved for their elegant and witty Britpop hits such as National Express and Becoming More Like Alfie.

In recent years, mainman Neil Hannon has worked on a rich variety of other projects, including a stage musical version of Swallows & Amazons, a couple of opera commissions and an organ composition, To Our Fathers In Distress, inspired by his own father, before reactivating The Divine Comedy on latest album, Foreverland.

We spoke to Hannon ahead of his Bandstand revels on such pressing issues as his cult following, his typical childhood Sundays, his Napoleon complex and an asinine collaborator…

Okay, so The Beach Boys’ seminal Pet Sounds is fifty years young this year, but we at Glasgow Music City Tours are minded to celebrate an album anniversary which strikes closer to home. Belle & Sebastian’s debut album Tigermilk was released twenty years ago this summer, heralding the arrival of a special Glasgow band, irrevocably linked to their city of origin.

Just as The Smiths got under the skin of Manchester like no other chronicler, so Belle & Sebastian portrayed their native Glasgow with an idiosyncratic urban romance, far removed from the city’s bygone hard man image. Twenty years on, there is still no one else who sounds quite like this group.

The abridged origins legend goes like this: frontman Stuart Murdoch had been writing and demoing songs for a number of years before stealth recruiting a crack team of musicians to play them. “Have you ever seen The Magnificent Seven?” asks the Tigermilk sleevenotes. “It was like that, only more tedious.”

Our guide Fiona talks about attending Belle & Sebastian’s debut gig in this short Visit Scotland film. Held in a flat which was home to assorted band members, the gig was “sold out”, so she listened in from the hallway. It was muffled, but still impressive.

For a brief moment, in her capacity as a music reviewer, she was permitted to hold and even play the test pressing of the group’s debut album, recorded as part of Stow College’s music course and released on the college’s fledging indie label Electric Honey, in a limited vinyl edition of 1000.

Given the indie baroque brilliance of the music and Belle & Sebastian’s instant cult status, copies of the album from that original pressing run quickly became desirable collector’s items. We are tickled/proud/smug to say that all three GMCT directors each own original editions, and you can see us clutching them possessively below Check out The State We Are In.

But with the album’s 20th birthday looming, we got to wondering where are our fellow Tigermilk travellers? Inspired by the fabled Blue Monday Owners’ Club we would like to put out a call to the other 997 members of what we have chosen to christen the TigermilkOwners’ Club. We imagine it to be an exclusive but friendly body, defined partly by a love of lyrical indie pop whimsy and probably also by residency round and about Scotland’s Central Belt in the mid-1990s.

But where are you all now? And what did/does the album mean to you? Did you buy it at the time? Or sell your grandmother to acquire an original copy at a later date? Is it gathering dust, or never off your turntable?

If you feel you can claim membership of the Tigermilk Owners Club, please send us a picture of you posing with your beloved platter – accompanied, if you like, by a few lines of associated memories/stories.

Send your pics to info@glasgowmusiccitytours.com and, once we have a few, we’ll set up a Tigermilk Owners Club page on this site.

And don’t be trying to pass off any of those mass-produced 1999 re-issues as 1996 originals, or we shall be mildly miffed. We’re looking forward to meeting you all, and will post an update on the anniversary — June 6th.

To mark the success of our first rehearsal run of the Glasgow’s Music Mile tour on Saturday and in anticipation of the maiden voyage of our Merchant City Music Past and Present tour this Friday, we are pleased to launch our Spotify playlist. It’s over there, on the right. You’ll probably need to scroll down.

Like any good jukebox, we’ll be changing the records from time to time to keep things fresh. We’re also happy to take requests so do get in touch via Twitter, Facebook or email us at info@glasgowmusiccitytours.com with suggestions of Glasgow gems or musical themes you would like to hear represented.

Other themed playlists will follow but we are debuting with a soundtrack inspired by some of the venues we visit on our tours matched to our favourite Glasgow artists and songs. Walk and roll! Continue reading →